HARTFORD — Practice had finished Wednesday afternoon, and one by one UConn's players took a seat or found their way to the Gampel Pavilion lockerroom. Two remained, engaged in an intense game of one-on-one.

Shabazz Napier claims he got the better of DeAndre Daniels. He claims he always gets the better of his teammate in these frequent contests. It is Daniels, however, who might be better for it.

Napier, UConn's resident magician, pulled another rabbit out of his hat Thursday night. He scored a late tying layup to force overtime against Cincinnati and then blistered the Bearcats in the extra session, leading the Huskies to a 73-66 victory before a crowd of 11,131 at the XL Center.

But every good magician needs a trusted assistant. That was Daniels.

"He did a lot of things," said Napier, who scored 11 of his game-high 27 points in the overtime. "He was a stat-sheet stuffer in many ways — blocks, defensive rebounds, deflections, scoring. He did a lot of things we normally see him do in practice. ... I think he contributed so much to this game."

Credit those matchups with Napier. The junior guard uses them to get better. In the process, Napier makes Daniels better.

"They help a lot," Daniels said. "It tells me I can guard a guy his size and gives me some more confidence to know I can play anybody and do the things the coaches want me to do."

Daniels drew coach Kevin Ollie's ire in the first 90 seconds of the game and found a quick place on the bench, Ollie using the Jim Calhoun-like quick hook. A year ago, Daniels admitted he would have sulked to the bench and questioned himself in such a situation.

On Thursday night, he used the early exit from the game as motivation.

Daniels finished with 17 points, five rebounds and all of UConn's four blocked shots in arguably the most important contribution he's made at UConn. Napier rightfully draws the accolades for what happened Thursday night, but he doesn't do it without something from each of his teammates.

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Daniels gave the biggest something.

Napier's layup with 41 seconds to play in regulation tied the game and forced overtime. But Daniels' 3-pointer, his third of the game, with 3:15 left in regulation pulled the Huskies (18-7, 8-5 Big East) within 53-52. He provided necessary, but often overlooked stuff.

"He gave us big-time minutes," Ollie said. "Big-time shots. When we were down four, he hit that three when Shabazz made that wonderful pass off a high ball screen. The toughness that he showed was just great. I pulled him in the first minute ... but he took it like a man and that's what this team is all about.

"They get back in the game and get back in the fight. I just respect DeAndre so much. He's understanding how to perform in the Big East and make an impact in the game."

UConn equaled its Big East win total from a year ago and has five games left to improve on that. The Huskies joined Wagner and Richmond as the only teams in the country to win four overtime games this year. Cincinnati (19-8, 7-7) lost for the fourth time in five games and will suffer its first losing month in nearly three years.

Ryan Boatright had a poor shooting night again, going 3 for 12. But he scored nine points, led the Huskies with five assists and held Bearcats guard Cashmere Wright to 10 points. Omar Calhoun played with a sore right wrist he sustained in the Villanova game and scored 10 points while leading the Huskies with six rebounds.

UConn was outrebounded badly again (44-28) gave up a bushel of offensive rebounds again (17) and suffered through a second-half scoring drought that fell just shy of nine minutes. The pluck and determination that was absent against Villanova showed up again.

Napier, who played all 45 minutes, provided the bulk of it, but that's expected. It has become common. The somewhat inconsistent Daniels played the perfect assistant to UConn's resident Houdini.

"A lot of us have really matured since last year and DeAndre did a great job by handling things and his attitude," Boatright said. "More praise to him because he came back in and made a difference when could have hung his head, caught an attitude and things could have gone a whole other way than they did tonight."

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